First APIA Event with Valerie Soe in May 2010

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month on May 3 2010, the Asian Pacific Islander Faculty/Staff Association screened the documentary, The Oak Park Story, by Valerie Soe and Russell Jeung.

The Oak Park Story recounts the journeys of three families--from Cambodia, Mexico, and California--who band together at a run-down slum in Oakland CA and win a landmark settlement against their landlord. For more info go to Oak Park Story.

Valerie Soe is a visual artist, filmmaker, and writer from San Francisco as well as a faculty member in San Francisco State University's Asian American Studies Department. Ms. Soe earned her BA in Art from UCLA and her Masters in Video and Photography from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In response to the limited representations of Asians in the mass media, Ms. Soe’s work focuses on identity, culture, and activism, primarily in the Asian American community. Her productions include Mixed Blood, Picturing Oriental Girls: A (Re) Educational Videotape , "ALL ORIENTALS LOOK THE SAME" and the House of Ong. She has won a number of prizes such as Best Foreign Video at the Festival Internazionale Cinema Giovani in Torino, Italy and Best Bay Area Short from the Golden Gate Awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Her work has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the American Film Institute’s National Video Festival, and the World Wide Video Festival in The Hague. The Oak Park Story was shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival.

Valerie Soe answered questions after screening the film for two groups of attentive students.

2011 APIA Scholarship Award

The 2011 APIA Scholarship was awarded to Chiaki Kimura who has done volunteer work for most of her life, starting as a five year old when she participated in fund-raising for the victims of the Kobe earthquake. She continued her volunteer work at a nursing home and at a kindergarten school. At Fullerton College, Chiaki has been active in student organizations and did fund-raising for the 2011 earthquake victims in Japan. She has also been interested in environmental issues, helping to clean beaches in Japan as well as in California. Chiaki will be tranferring to California State University Long Beach as a dance major.

APIA's first award was presented at the Transfer Reception hosted by the Cadena Transfer Center. Lily Espinoza generously allowed APIA to participate in the event and has offered to let APIA continue to do so next year.